ns designed to give students a comprehensive view of local
bird-life without confusing them with unnecessary details.

Among other aids to this end a collection of 'Birds Found within 50
Miles of New York' has been placed in a special hall and so grouped that
the visitor who wishes to identify some bird seen within these limits
may do so with the least possible difficulty. In addition to the
'General Systematic Collection,' containing specimens of the 350-odd
species of birds which have been recorded from the New York City region,
there is also a 'Seasonal Collection.' This Seasonal Collection contains
only the birds of the month. Its base is the 'Permanent Resident Birds,'
or those which, like the Crow, are with us throughout the year. To
these, the migratory species are added or subtracted, as they come or
go. The collection of migratory species is therefore revised the first
of each month. Birds which are due to arrive during the month are added,
those which have left us are withdrawn. The Seasonal Collection thus
gives us, at a glance, a picture of the bird-life of the month and
correspondingly limits the field of our inquiry when we go to it to
learn the name of some strange bird recently observed. In January,
therefore, we have not to consider the birds of June, nor need we be
concerned with winter birds in summer. The season of occurrence thus
gives us an important clue to a bird's identity.

For somewhat more than a quarter of a century this small collection has
achieved its object so effectively that I have attempted to embody the
idea it demonstrates in a series of drawings which have been admirably
executed by Mr. Edmund Sawyer. As foundation plates or 'collections,' we
have first two 'cases' of the winter land birds of the Northeastern
States, or from about Maryland northward, containing the Permanent
Residents, which form part of the bird-life of every month of the year,
and the Winter Visitants, or those birds which come from the North in
the fall to remain with us until the following spring.

Cases 3 and 4 contain the Permanent Resident and Winter Visitant land
birds of the Southern States. Whether the student is in the North or in
the South he has, therefore, a 'collection' of the land birds which he
may expect to find during the winter months.

Cases 5 to 8 contain the migrants arranged according to the order of
their arrival from the South in the vicinity of New York City. Since it
is not practicabl